Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction in the Community: Impact of Diagnostic Criteria on the Burden, Correlates, and Prognosis

BACKGROUND: Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (DD) is common, particularly in women and older individuals, and it is associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. We evaluated the impact of age- and sex-specific diagnostic criteria on the assessment of DD in the community-based Framingham Heart Study. METHODS AND RESULTS: We estimated age- and sex-specific reference limits for echocardiographic measures of DD in a healthy reference subsample (N=2355, mean age 44 years, 66% women). The prevalence, correlates, and association with future cardiovascular disease were compared for DD using age- and sex-specific versus single cut point reference limits in a broad sample (N=6102, mean age 50 years, 56% women). Using age- and sex-specific criteria, DD was present in ≈25% to 30% of individuals across age groups, and it was directly associated with a number of modifiable risk factors. In contrast, with single cut point criteria, age was the primary determinant of DD. During follow-up (mean 7.9±2.2 years), incident cardiovascular disease occurred in 213 of 5770 individuals. Using age- and sex-specific criteria, mild and moderate-severe DD were associated with 50% (95% confidence interval, 1.09-2.05) and 65% (95% confidence interval, 1.14-2.38) higher incidences of cardiovascular disease, respectively, in age- and sex-adjusted analyses. With single cut point criteria, moderate-severe DD (hazard ratio, 1.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-2.61), but not mild DD (hazard ratio, 0.94; 95% confidence interval, 0.63-1.40), was associated with incident cardiovascular disease. CONCLUSIONS: Age- and sex-specific reference limits may result in DD assessments that are less dependent on age, more robustly related to modifiable risk factors, and are more closely associated with incident cardiovascular disease.